Ex-director Zirl Smith Wants To Tell His Side

Zirl Smith, the former executive director of the Chicago Housing Authority, said Wednesday that he has been trying to respond to numerous charges against him in a soon-to-be-released federal report but that federal housing officials have refused to listen to him.

Gordon Cavanaugh, Smith`s Washington-based attorney, said, ``It`s like blindfolding a guy and punching him. Somebody is trying to do a number on him.``

The report, a management review of the financially distressed CHA, is based on a five-month study by experts from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Though it has not been made public, sources familiar with the report have indicated that it is highly critical of Smith, accusing him of bypassing federal regulations, circumventing the CHA board and spending federal money improperly.

Since late last month, Cavanaugh said, he has been unsuccessfully asking top national HUD officials to let Smith give them his explanation of the CHA`s financial crisis, the worst in the authority`s 50-year history.

``It`s strange that HUD doesn`t want to know what he thinks about what HUD found,`` Cavanaugh said.

``What Zirl Smith has wanted and still wants is that somebody sit down with him and discuss with him what they`re preparing as findings and that they listen to him before they reach final conclusions to put in that report.``

Smith, interviewed by HUD investigators for just over an hour early during the review, said he will send a letter Thursday to HUD regional administrator Gertrude Jordan asking for an opportunity to answer the review`s allegations against him.

``All I`m asking is for HUD to be fair,`` Smith said.

Smith noted that former CHA Chairman Renault Robinson was permitted to participate in two meetings at which HUD investigators told CHA officials the findings of the review and permitted them to respond.

During most of his nearly three years as CHA executive director, Smith fought Robinson unsuccessfully for control of day-to-day operations of the housing authority.

Both resigned in January after HUD took back $7 million from the CHA when the housing authority failed to meet an end-of-1986 deadline to spend the money.

The management review was coordinated by Phyllis Griffith, a HUD expert in troubled housing authorities, who, according to colleagues, has maintained a close working relationship with Robinson over the last five years.

Current and former high-level CHA officials said that Griffith frequently conferred with Robinson during the review, which had been requested by Robinson.

Jack Flynn, a HUD spokesman in Washington, said Smith would be given a chance to respond to items in the review once it was completed and sent to the CHA.

Adolph Slaughter, the HUD spokesman in Chicago, said, ``The review team decides who they need to interview and who they don`t need to interview. If we feel we only need to talk to him for an hour, that`s our call. We`re not required to talk to anyone at all.``

In addition to only a cursory interview of Smith, the HUD team didn`t interview Brenda Gaines, the CHA interim executive director, and Earl Neal, chairman of the CHA board`s Finance and Executive Committees.

Slaughter said CHA officials invited Robinson to attend the meetings between HUD and the CHA on April 22 and 27 to discuss the review.

``If they had asked to invite Zirl Smith, it wouldn`t have made any difference to us,`` he said.

Cavanaugh said Smith, who now runs a private consulting business, has been operating at a disadvantage because he hasn`t been confronted by anyone at HUD with the charges that will be included in the report. However, for nearly five months, items in the review critical of Smith have been leaked by HUD officials to news organizations.

Cavanaugh said he talked to top federal officials, including Michael Dorsey, the HUD general counsel, and James Baugh, acting assistant HUD secretary for public housing, and even hinted at possible legal action against the agency and its officials for defaming Smith.

``Sometimes people in a bureaucracy think they`re insulated because they`re governmental employees,`` he said.

Meanwhile, Joseph Gardner, the CHA`s deputy executive director for tenant services, announced Wednesday that 14 members of his staff are being laid off because of the CHA`s financial problems. Their duties, he said, will be handled by the 22 CHA residents hired by his department last year as resident counselors.

But on Wednesday night, more than 80 members of General Service Employees Union, Local 73, who are employed by the CHA, met with union officials to complain about the layoffs and the replacements.

One woman, who didn`t want to be identified for fear of reprisals, said the layoffs were made ``because politics in the CHA is advancing.``

Some of the employees attending the meeting, many with more than 10 years on the job, received letters May 1 informing them that their jobs were being eliminated as of May 30.

Norbert Ciesil, business manager of Local 73, said the union was not informed of the layoffs until members contacted the union after receiving letters. He said the union has filed charges with the State Labor Relations Board requesting the information.

Ciesil said. ``We`ve got people with years of seniority being laid off and many with less being promoted. We want this information so we can challenge this.``